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De Blob (series)
De Blob is a series of two platform-puzzle video games that has players explore and liberate an alien city from the evil, monochromatic INKT Corporation that has taken over the city and outlawed all color and fun from daily life. Playing as de Blob, players embark on a quest to re-animate the fictional place of Chroma City and free it from the INKT Corporation by splattering buildings, landmarks, and citizens with color. History De Blob In De Blob, It was told through a combination of pre-rendered cinematic sequences and in-game dialog, de Blob tells the story of Chroma City, its invasion by the INKT Corporation and its subsequent liberation by the titular Blob and the Color Underground. Initially a lively and colorful city populated by its equally colorful and diverse citizens, the Raydians, Chroma City is suddenly invaded by the INKT Corporation. A corporate military dictatorship, INKT is led by the villainous Comrade Black and dedicated to the eradication of color through its "War on Color". Chroma City quickly falls to the invading army of Inkies and color-draining Leechbots, leaving its landscape barren, its flora withered and its fauna in hiding. The citizens are rounded up and turned into "Graydians", encased in homogeneous gray prison suits distinguished only by a bar code on the back of each shell. The Graydians are forced to serve as both menial labor and as a living resource of ink, the latter of which is mined literally from their sadness. Blob witnesses the takeover of Chroma City from his jungle retreat and goes into action, first rescuing the only remaining pocket of resistance, the Color Underground. Blob joins the group, and under their orders, begins to win back sections of the city and arouse the vicious ire of Comrade Black. In response, Black orders everything from propaganda campaigns to the creation of super soldiers in an attempt to stop Blob, though to no avail. With nearly all of Chroma City in control of the Color Underground, Comrade Black desperately orders all his troops to retreat to his spaceship in Lake Raydia, and attempts to launch all the stolen color into a black hole where it will be lost forever. However, Blob manages to stowaway onto the spaceship and defeat Black, then detonates a device that devours the spacecraft in a burst of color and whimsy. With the Raydians finally safe, Blob returns to his jungle retreat, napping on a tree as he was at the story's beginning. De Blob 2 In De Blob 2, The Nintendo DS version takes place between de Blob and the storyline of the home console versions of de Blob 2. In this version, Dr. Von Blot, Comrade Black's chief scientist, has been experimenting with creatures in order to create a new kind of mutated ink. Blob stumbles across Von Blot's jungle-based underground laboratory and proceeds to stop the doctor's nefarious scheme.3 After some exploring in the laboratory, Blob stumbles across Von Blot, who accidentally falls into a pool of mutated ink that turns him into "de Blot", a giant monster with Blob-based powers, and he leads an invasion on Chroma City. After defeating the Inkies, Blob is about to be rewarded with the city's key by the mayor, but Blot escapes and Blob, along with the Professor's robot Pinky, goes after him. The two find out that Blot is powering an ink-based rocket to launch on Chroma City to fully turn it into a colorless place and that Blot has kidnapped the Professor. Blob and Pinky reach the pipes that connect the ink to the rocket and turn the ink into color without being noticed by Blot. After that, they save the underground's Raydian crews and the Professor, while Blob faces Blot in a final showdown, where Blot gets defeated and tied to the rocket. The rocket launches, and Blot is killed and defeated, while the Inkies retreat. Blob, Pinky and the Professor celebrate. The videogame console versions of de blob 2 pick up where the DS version left off, opening with Prisma City's general election. A mysterious priest called Papa Blanc, who is actually a disguised Comrade Black, the villain from the first game, is doing his utmost to rig the outcome of the vote by cheating with an artificial metal arm in each voting booth that presses Blanc, allowing his cult of Inkies to wreak all manner of color-related havoc on the metropolis. The INKT Corporation, as before, manages to drain all color from the city and also turns its inhabitants, the Raydians, into generic drones. Once again, it is up to Blob and the members of the Color Underground to restore the city to its vibrant former glory. Blob frees the lands one by one, as he did in the last game, fighting against many foes, including a massive monster created in a factory accident, as he approaches Comrade Black. Black, however, is shown to be more clever than was suggested in the previous game. At one point, he kidnaps the other members of the Color Underground. Once De Blob frees all of Prisma City, he confronts Comrade Black again, only to discover, as he flees to space once again, that Black had used Blob's own journey against him, using color beacons that were mysteriously activated as Blob progressed to power an orbiting satellite to hypnotize the entire planet. As Blob gets closer and closer, Black taunts him and forces him to make a series of choices: continue on, or rescue a few Graydians that Black had placed in biodomes rigged to explode and risk running out of time. Once Blob finally reaches him, Black uses a high-power beam of color to grow gigantic and fight Blob. Once Blob defeats him, Black is sucked into space, and the world returns to normal De Blob Revolution In De Blob Revolution, The INKT Corporation has trapped many Graydians inside INKT buildings and it's up to Blob to go inside the buildings and rescue as many Graydians as he can. The style has most of it's style from the original game but with mobile help from De Blob's mobile title. Gameplay De Blob The player character — de Blob — starts out as a ball of clear "water". de Blob is free to roll around and collect paint from Paintbots in the three colors of red, yellow and blue, which can be combined into green, orange, purple and brown. de Blob then merely has to touch a building, lamppost, billboard, or other object for the entire surface of said object to be smeared in his current color. As he colors the city, the game's soundtrack, featuring live bands which recorded slow and fast versions of each "lick" (each hit), gradually adds more instrumentation as well as an additional "layer" of sound corresponding to de Blob's current color—being red usually adds a saxophone solo to the music, for example.10 As de Blob collects paint, his size increases to a maximum of 100; each object he paints costs a paint point, as does attacking enemies, while touching water makes de Blob remove his color. de Blob wanders Chroma City, spreading color and life at the request of a surviving Raydian. While de Blob is free to paint, there are various missions which can or must be completed. These missions are given by various members of the Color Underground and include painting certain buildings certain colours and transforming a landmark with enough of a certain color of paint (for example, 30 yellow paint points). Each of the 10 levels have a main landmark to paint, which may require more than one color and more paint points than usual. There are various hazards to avoid, however. Pools of ink turn de Blob black and cause him to lose paint points constantly; when he loses all of his paint points, he loses a life. Ink must be washed out with water. The INKT forces, Inkies, will send out footsoldiers to stop de Blob, as well as other forces—handheld ink guns, turrets, tanks, jetbikes and even Inkies that are immune to all but a specific color. There are also other hazards, such as hotplates, electric plates and spikes. As de Blob paints Chroma City and completes missions, points are accumulated. Each gate separating the player from the next part of a stage can be opened by reaching a certain number of points. Once the final gate is open, the stage can be completed. De Blob 2 de Blob 2's gameplay is largely similar to its predecessor's. The player once again controls Blob, who can mix colors in order to paint objects and bring life to the cityscape, which in turn opens up previously locked areas. Blob is given missions by his friends in the Color Underground, such as completing timed races, defeating enemies, liberating captured Graydians and seizing important landmarks. However, new gameplay additions have been added. One example is Blob's new ability to perform a powerful dash attack, which breaks through obstacles and kills most foes, at the expense of a sizable amount of paint points. Furthermore, as the player progresses through the game, they obtain "inspiration points", which are used at the Idea Emporium to purchase upgrades for Blob, such as increased paint capacity and defensive shields.4 Power-ups feature within the levels as well: the magnetic Wrecking Ball allows Blob to roll up metal surfaces, sink underwater, and destroy any enemy easily; the Hazmat Suit protects Blob from any passive hazards such an ink and hotplates; the Graviton Bomb temporarily transforms Blob into a devastating black hole; the Re-Gen constantly replenishes Blob's paint points; and the Rainbow gives Blob infinite paint points and gives him the use of all seven colors at once.5 Another new inclusion is a two-player mode akin to the co-op functionality of Super Mario Galaxy. The second player takes control of a new member of the Color Underground named Pinky, who is able to assist Blob and help him surmount more difficult challenges. Bosses will also play a larger role in this game; the player will have to use the painting mechanics in thoughtful ways in order to defeat them.6 Aside from the new gameplay additions, de Blob 2 also has a heavier emphasis on platforming compared to its predecessor. Much like in de Blob, Blob has to take over landmark buildings in the city, but this time he also has to enter them, rather than simply needing a certain amount of paint points to capture it. Inside, the gameplay switches from its usual 3D perspective to a 2D perspective. Blob must then complete a platforming challenge filled with many hazards, such as the new Gravity Wall mechanics, before the building is taken. There are over 100 of these platforming stages throughout the course of the game.7 In comparison to the home console versions, the Nintendo DS version of de Blob 2 instead plays entirely as a 2D platformer. It is divided into individual levels that require Blob to make use of wall jumping and a slingshot technique to traverse environments, with these features drawing comparisons to the gameplay used in the Sonic the Hedgehog series. De Blob Revolution The INKT Corporation has trapped many Graydians inside INKT buildings and it's up to Blob to go inside the buildings and rescue as many Graydians as he can. Blob must complete anywhere between 6 to 9 mazes at a time. He will be put inside a random maze and must work out how to rescue all of the Graydians in a room and also reach the exit. The catch is that Blob leaves a paint trail behind himself and he is unable to cross over this trail or double back on himself. Because of this, sometimes Graydians may have to be left behind so Blob can exit the room. If Blob ends up trapped in a corner, he will have to restart from the first maze that he started on again. The Conference Call During THQ's fiscal third quarter conference call, president and CEO Brian Farrell announced both de Blob and Saints Row will see new titles in the coming years. "Our de Blob franchise will be back again in fiscal 2011", stated Farrell. "We successfully launched this highly-rated franchise in fiscal 2009 to broad, critical acclaim. External Links *De-Blob on MobyGames *De-Blob 2 on MobyGames Category:De Blob Category:THQ former franchises Category:THQ Nordic franchises